


Kaleidoscope: An Aftermath.

by GeminiLightning



Category: Infinite Horizon
Genre: Spoilers for end of Season 1
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:49:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26335183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeminiLightning/pseuds/GeminiLightning
Summary: With Alma being taken by Silverbreak, the crew of The Awakener continue to figure out how to cope. Each of them do it a little differently, while taking care of each other.
Kudos: 3





	1. Mason.

Three hours after the group hug on Wyre's ship, Mason's mind was still racing.

He should've known something was wrong. How could he have missed it? They'd gone after the supers at the Silverbreak facility almost a week ago. They'd rescued the kid but left Bekker as MIA and he'd just left it at that. 

_You're getting rusty, Frey. Your superiors would be chewing you out by now if you were still with the Regulators. Why did you not question the kid about what happened? Why did you not think about why it'd been just the kid and not Bekker?_

He knew the answer to the latter. Bekker was a career soldier, and with his power to create portals, nobody had considered it too far of a stretch for he to have escaped the situation and been at large. They'd been happy enough to succeed in the mission of rescuing the powered prisoners and getting away from Entropis to ask any more questions. 

_Is that why Vix just let us go? Did he even know about the duplicate that we were bringing with us back to The Awakener?_ Though he tried to stop himself, he couldn't help but feel a tinge of frustration at Peach's brother. What a pain he had been. If it wasn't for his going missing, Mason wouldn't have gotten involved in this business at all. 

_At least we've got him now, and he won't cause any more problems,_ he thought, trying to calm himself down. 

No matter what the intent, the duplicate had come on board, fooled everyone, and lain in wait. Then, just as they were celebrating their victory of getting the supers out of Silverbreak's clutches, they had been appalled at seeing Awakener leaving dock, with Alma still on board. 

_Shit. Bina is right. She really was alone, and she thought she had backup._

The conversation that he'd had with Alma replayed in his mind. How ironic it was considering their current situation. 

With an audible sigh, he went to the galley to find some liquor, to see Xaiyah already there with a glass of whiskey in her hand. Thankfully, none of the others were around - especially not Bowen Eastman. Though, he admitted, he really ought to speak to that kid again after the wolfing out that he had done. That had been surprising, and very effective.

Wordlessly, Xaiyah poured a glass of whiskey and slid it across the table at Mason. He took it, nodding gratefully, and took a sip.

"Thought you'd come by," she said, her voice rather uncharacteristically soft. 

For some reason, he couldn't meet her eyes as he answered a moment later: "Yeah."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, both sipping their drinks, before Xaiyah cleared her throat.

"Look - I'm not good at this kind of thing, and you of all people know that, but..." she hesitated, but then directly made eye contact with him, determined to continue. "You know it isn't anybody here's fault, right? We had no idea they had someone who could duplicate themselves like that. If whomever it was looked like Jade and even felt like Jade to a point that neither Bina nor the Princess had any questions, then we just got got. Maybe Wyre or Bina or Peach can come up with some way to detect it next time, but there's no use in beating yourself up for this. You know that, right?"

Her voice had gained more and more confidence and emphasis as she went along, to where by the end of her statement, it had authority. She almost glared at him as if to dare him to defy her.

He knew better than that. 'Cause deep inside, she was right. And perhaps that was what was the most frustrating - that given the information they'd had up to that time, there was nothing more they could've done.

He nodded, and took another sip. "You're right, and I hate that. I wish there was something, someone, to blame, you know? Instead of just the bastards winning."

She clenched her left fist, and that bluish electrical current played across her fingers.

"Tell me about it. But let me tell you something," she continued, her voice dropping a bit lower.

He topped both of their drinks, and then motioned for her to continue.

"We - Wyre and I, that is - have been doing this for far longer than y'all have," she said with a faraway look in her eye, "And those types of situations will happen whether you like them or not. You can't always be fully prepared, especially when fighting against a stacked deck."

She paused, and then quickly looked at the door to see if anybody else was coming in. Checking that nobody was, she continued in a soft voice so that only he could hear, "You know what the secret is to fighting Silverbreak and the other corps for so long?"

He shook his head.

"It's one of two things. You either learn to understand what things you could've made a difference with and what things you couldn't, and you try to make sure that there're more things in the former than the latter," she said, pointing at herself, "Or you get so hell-bent on revenge for one thing that they did that you can never forgive them or yourself for allowing to happen and you let that revenge be the driving force behind everything you do."

There was a faraway look in Xaiyah's eyes as she finished the sentence.

"Now, I'd rather you do the first and not the second, all right?" Her tone was almost pleading.

Mason wasn't quite sure how to respond. He respectfully nodded, which caused her to slightly smile.

"You know, that whole silence thing really comes in handy sometimes," she offered, changing the subject. 

He shrugged. "If you've got nothing to say, don't say anything at all, right?"

"I can drink to that," she responded, raising her glass, "So many could learn that."

"Thanks," he said timidly, still not looking at her, "Thanks for... the talk. I appreciate it."

"Don't start making this awkward now," she answered, but there was a genuine smile on her face. "You're very welcome."

He raised his glass, and they clinked. As they started to take a sip, though, a young man wearing a shirt two sizes too big entered the galley.

"Oh, there you are!" exclaimed Bowen Eastman, making a beeline for Mason, "Been looking for you since we got on this ship. Can you believe what happened? How did I look? What did you think?"

Mason could barely control himself from rolling his eyes, and Xaiyah noted the change in demeanor. 

Quickly, she rose to her feet, and went up to meet Bowen.

"Hey kid. Name's Xaiyah. Look, he's had enough for the day, all right? Why don't I show you around and you can deal with me instead."

"What? But who're you?" shot back Bowen.

"Me? Oh, I'm only one of the original group of people who've defied the Corps for years," she answered, taking his rudeness in stride, "Trust me, kid. You want to come along."

Without another word, she put a solid hand on Bowen's shoulder and led him out of the galley despite his pleas. Mason shot her a look of thanks, and then topped off his glass. 

She was right, of course. Which meant...

He pulled out his notebook and pen that he always carried with him. With his drink in one hand, Mason started writing down everything he remembered from the behavior of fake Jade since his "rescue" from the Silverbreak facility. 

They would get to the bottom of this, of that he was certain.

_We'll get you back, Alma. We promise._

_I promise._


	2. Peach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peach thinks about her brother, Alma, and the state of the crew before being comforted by an unlikely source.

Three hours after the group hug on Wyre's ship, Peach was still in the Medical Bay.

As hard as she'd tried to convince her friends that she was fine, Abrielle wasn't having any of it, and a few looks from Bina and Mason (plus what could amount as a stare from Patch) had convinced her to take it easy for a night. 

On the upside, it did give her the excuse to be near Vix, which she couldn't complain about. It felt like it had been years since she had seen her brother, and she still couldn't believe that he was here, in the same room, with her. That entire confrontation had been so... strange... 

He had been overwhelmed when his programming went against his beliefs and character - she had succeeded in subduing him. Then, she had been lucky enough to get some assistance from a keeper to move him. 

Yes, it was true that a lot of work awaited them when it came to Vix. Who knew what he'd endured while in Silverbreak custody, what lengths had been taken to get him to be the power mimic that they had faced multiple times. It was going to be difficult to repair or reverse the damage, but damn did it feel good to have him back.

Now, only if -

_Now, now... No use going down that route,_ she chided herself, trying to not get mired into thinking about the entire situation regarding Alma again.

The fact that both she and Bina could engage in telepathy meant that they were acutely aware of each other's thoughts at times, and with the way that Bina's power projected... She could still remember the pangs of guilt and grief that flowed off of Bina. 

When she was dealing with emotions of her own, it didn't make the best combination.

On top of it all... She was still having to deal with the decision that she'd made.

_Did I actually eliminate all the Warped? Did it work?_

In that moment, she had been so angry at the situation surrounding them endangering her friends, and had just wanted them to disappear. It had drained her thoroughly, but supposedly saved Bina, Bekker, and (the real) Jade.

_Was it the right thing to do?_

She knew only time would be the judge of that.

Her attention was diverted by the figure of the Anzalonian Doctor that they had on board. Abrielle had given her a thorough examination with Liralei watching on, and then given her some space; however, she was still around - the med bay was her office after all, though Patch didn't spend all of their time watching over her anymore - and the gaze on Abrielle's face looking at Peach informed her that though Abrielle didn't have any powers, she was fully aware of what was going on in Peach's head.

"You aren't going there, are you?" inquired the doctor cautiously, gauging Peach's reactions, "'Cause if you are, let me just stop you right now. Save your energy, blame Silverbreak, and worry about your brother. All right?"

Peach's eyebrows furrowed in response. "Should I really be that worried?" She wished her voice was a bit less shaky, but her body was still weak, and she couldn't hide her concern.

Abrielle sighed. This wasn't going according to plan, but when did anything go according to plan for her when it came to socializing?

"No... At least, now now. We won't know until he wakes up just how much Silverbreak messed with his head. I'm sure that after that, we'll be able to figure out a plan to get him to fully become himself again. Though, I will have to warn you that he will definitely not be the same brother that you had before all this started."

Peach nodded, albeit slowly.

"I'm not naive, Abrielle. Nobody who went through stuff like that would remain the same. No, I'm just happy he's here, and that we can be together in the future," she explained, "And if he wants to master his powers so that we can get some revenge on Silverbreak? I'm all for that."

Abrielle nodded grimly. "That's the spirit. I'm not quite done with them, either. If I can help in any way, you just let me know."

Peach laughed for the first time in hours before gently reminding Abrielle, "You're such a softie, Abrielle. All tough up front... But you really do care about us, don't you?"

"You helped me get my sister back," answered Abrielle, "I still owe you for that."

Peach's eyes lingered on Abrielle's for a moment before she decided to let her get away with it this time, and dropped her gaze. She knew that Abrielle knew.

"Thanks, Abrielle," Peach said, still exhausted, "We're lucky to have you. And if we are to get Alma back... We're going to need your help, so I'm glad that you're staying around. I just want everyone to be okay, you know? We got your sister back, we got Vix back, we rescued all the supers and escaped Silverbreak... The only thing left not checked off is Alma now. Oh, and taking down Silverbreak, of course."

"Don't mention it," was the reply as Abrielle deliberately looked away, "You get better now so you can go check up on Bina... She's probably taking this the hardest."

Peach nodded slowly.

"Probably... I guess I should get some sleep... Thanks."

The last thing that she stared at for a few moments before falling asleep was her brother's face. 

They were back together. Abrielle and Liaralei were back together.

They were going to get Alma.

They simply had to.


	3. Interlude: Three Letters.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A trio of messages arrive. What are their contents? Why do they matter?

The first.

An encoded message, addressed to Wyre herself, simple:

_Sender,_

_I assure you: We are fine._

_We will be ready when the time comes._

_Things are... Going well enough, or so it seems. The fight continues, and there is no sight of an end, but we will prevail regardless._

_Send the others my regards, and continued thanks for the cache that they left behind._

_Farewell,_

_W._

The second.

A transmission sent to the crew of The Awakener, and screened by the firewall:

A video message of a woman strutting into screen with a wink:

"Is this thing on?"

"Got your own revolution going on now, huh?"

"The _Lament_ and I are doing fine. Crew's coming along, I think they're getting close to not stabbing me when I have my back turned. Not that I mind," chuckles the Anzalonian on screen.

"Now, now," she states, "We're even as far as I'm concerned. I got you the artifact, you got me back my ship."

Then, she abruptly winks to break any upcoming tension.

"But, it turns out that I like you folks, so... Yeah, if push comes to shove, you can count me in."

"Tell Peach she owes me one. I'm sure she can think of a way to pay me off."

Another wink.

"Well, got to go - more treasures await. Ciao!"

The Third.

A message caught in the filters and pushed away to the "Other" mailbox rather abruptly, with a note added to Wyre's "to discuss sometime" list:

_Mention to The Awakener Crew that there is one arms merchant still actively looking for them for some weapons._

Actively forgotten.


End file.
